As much as I want to, I can't help but write most of this
review based on how close Digital Devil Saga is to
Atlus' SMT: Nocturne. Everything
from artistic style to the combat system is built upon the
core established in Nocturne. Even with that said,
Digital Devil Saga does offer some different aspects
that is sure to keep you interested. While the story in Nocturne
was more understated and the player was immersed in a gameworld
that offered the story in sparse moments, DDS is a
far more story-heavy title featuring a fully fleshed cast
of characters. The story takes off right away: players are
in command of the Embryon - one of six tribes fighting for
dominance in The Junkyard - a dark, post apocalyptic world
beset by constant rain. During one skirmish, Serph, leader
of the Embryon, and his allies come across the young woman
Sera and find themselves transformed into demons that force
them to feed on their enemies to survive. It is then that
they are charged with defeating the other tribes for good
so they can reach Nirvana and hopefully get answers to their
situation. While this initial setup may seem dry, the story
manages to evolve nicely towards the end of the game.

At the core of DDS is a dungeon crawler not unlike
Nocturne. In fact, most of the game is built upon the
spells, abilities and combat system already fleshed out in
the previous game. Combat randomly occurs, throwing players
against demons in the Press Turn system, where you can gain
more actions during the player's phase by exploiting weaknesses.
On the flip side, though is that you can lose actions if you
attack the enemy's strengths. Also, your enemy LOVES
to exploit each of your character's inherent weaknesses. At
the end of combat, you'll gain Macca (money), Karma (experience)
and Atma. Atma points are earned through the devouring of
enemies and are used in learning new abilities. Abilities
are gained by purchasing ability sets from an extended skill
tree which looks a lot like the Sphere Grid from Final
Fantasy X. While initially, you may find learning skills
just an exercise it getting more powerful MP and HP consuming
skills, it won't be long before you will need to take care
in what you teach each of the members of your team. As they
learn skills, you'll need to Set their skills as they have
a limited number that can be equipped, forcing some serious
decisions on the player's behalf.

Instead of recruiting, or even conversing with, enemy demons,
DDS provides you with a set team of five of which only
three can be in battle. Fortunately, you can Deploy others
in place of your team members for the cost of a turn, which
allows you to deal with most enemies by varying your ability
sets. During battle, you can use Hunt skills to Devour enemies
to gain additional Atma, but you need to be careful that doing
so doesn't give your character a stomach ache. In DDS,
status effects, ability buffing and de-buffing attacks and
skills prove to be very effective. You can't survive long
without being able to render some non-damage attacks on your
opponents. In fact, some battles will turn ugly without some
support effort.

While not nearly as challenging as Nocturne, Digital
Devil Saga is still harder than your standard Japanese
RPG. Many dungeons will have you cherishing every save point
you can find. Your whole party can be wiped out with a mistake
and the enemies love to drop instant death spells. If you
spend a lot of time powerleveling, the game may become easier,
but that tends to be tedious. While most dungeons are pretty
lengthy, you're often treated to some degree of puzzle solving,
which keeps most dungeons from being too tedious.

When it comes to the graphics department, Digital Devil
Saga shows off a world that at times is dull and drab
by intention, while other times is gorgeous and glows with
style. This dichotomy is what sets the art style apart from
most RPGs bent on crushing the player with overly ornate landscapes.
DDS features a cel-shaded type of graphics that don't
beat you over the head with cartoony black lines. The characters,
while stiff to some degree, exhibit a nice level of humanity
in their mannerisms, especially as the story goes along and
they become less dry and more emotional. Most of the standard
enemies are taken straight from Nocturne, but the few that
are new to the series look pretty good, though most of the
best designs are from the boss battles (go figure).

Audiowise, DDS features another amazing soundtrack,
this time less dark and moody and more of the techno/rock
flair. Many of the tracks follow similar trends but work in
really giving each location a certain feel to it. Sound effects
are the standard fare. You won't be amazed by anything you
hear, but they work well at carrying the game world along.
When it comes to voice acting, the game starts off intentionally
drab and stiff, but as the story moves along each character
gets fleshed out and the voice work really shines.

Besides the fact that DDS borrows heavily from Nocturne,
so much so that it proves a bit detrimental, the biggest issue
with DDS is the game's pacing. You will find yourself
crawling through dungeons for extended periods of time. Too
long in most aspects. Throw in an encounter rate that's probably
the most sadistic I've dealt with and you may be spending
way too long just to get to the next story sequence.

Along with these previous statements, Digital Devil Saga
suffers from the fact that once the story really gets going,
the game ends, leading into the upcoming sequel. This is a
shame as the slow build up starts to really feel rewarding
and then... BAM! Too be continued... If you are a fan
of the Shin Megami Tensei games and loved Nocturne,
purchasing this one seems like a no-brainer. If you happen
to have been burned out on Nocturne, you may want to
skip this one as it proves to have a lot (maybe too much)
similar to the previous game.

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